Complexity of the language

Complexity of the language

Icelandic grammar is one of the more complicated ones in the world. The finnish language is more complicated, and there may be a few others beating Icelandic, but German for instance is simple compared to Icelandic grammar.

Conjugation of names
Everything conjugates. Even names of people.

The female name Guðrún for instance will change form depending on the context.

The help word for the caususes are:

Here is:
About:
From:
To:

In this way;

Here is Guðrún
About Guðrúnu
From Guðrúnu
To Guðrúnar

Even the second name conjugates.

So asuming that her name is Guðrún Sveinsdóttir

Here is Guðrún Sveinsdóttir
About Guðrúnu Sveinsdóttur
From Guðrúnu Sveinsdóttur
To Guðrúnar Sveinsdóttur

Conjugation of numbers
In Iceland, the numbers conjugate depending on what gender the object in question is.
For instance one bite is

Einn biti. (The word for one is in this form written "Einn")
One piece is on the other hand:
Ein sneid. (The word one is suddently written "Ein", because piece is female)
One unit, again is:
Eitt eintak. (Now suddenly the word one is written "Eitt", because unit is of neuter gender)

As this is not superbly easy to remember, you would be surprised how many foreigners learning Icelandic choose to buy five pieces of everything in the bakery to get past this dilemma, as only the numbers 1 to 4 conjugate according go what gender the object in question bears.

Male
Einn, tveir, thrir, fjorir, fimm....
Really spelled:
Einn, tveir, þrír, fjórir, fimm....

Female
Ein, tvaer, thrjar, fjorar, fimm....
Ein, tvær, þrjár, fjórar, fimm....

Neuter gender
Eitt, tvo, thrju, fjogur, fimm....
Eitt, tvö, þrjú, fjögur, fimm....

Dont fall for this. Be master of your own purchases.
Buy what you need and do your best. You will just be corrected if you go wrong. You will not be shot or stabbed. Icelandic people will generally like that you make the effort. There is a tendency to speak english to people showing weak icelandic.